Gavin Manders took the men’s title in the William Way Memorial Tournament last night at the WER Joell Tennis Stadium when he beat David Thomas, his Davis Cup team-mate, 6-4, 6-0.

As the scoreline suggests, the first set was close with the lead changing a couple of times in a seesaw battle, Manders leading 2-1, then Thomas 3-2 before Manders went back in front to stay as Thomas kept it close at 5-4 before Manders closed out the set.

The second set was all Manders, who never looked back after taking a 3-0 lead as Thomas tried in vain to produce a fightback. “I just tried to stay focused for the whole match, Dave is one of my good mates and I just tried to weather his storm,” said Manders, who will travel with Thomas, Neil Towlson and Jensen Bascome to the Davis Cup in Puerto Rico on May 31.

“We will represent Bermuda and have been training hard together. I knew to expect a good match from him. We know each other very well, so it was a bitter-sweet win. Somebody had to lose tonight.

“I felt pretty good. You can never be comfortable playing him because he controls the match with his forehand. The first set was extremely tight and nobody was letting up.

“We push each other on the court and off the court. He and I will lead the singles matches out there and this was pretty much to get ready for that.”

Thomas, nominally the Bermuda No 1 in the rankings, was disappointed that he was not able to offer more resistance in the second set. “I just started thinking about a few too many things,” he said. “Gavin played a great match and I didn’t give myself the opportunity to get into the second set.

“We’re very good friends and team-mates and we push each other to be better. If we can do that, we can get promotion in the Davis Cup.”

In the women’s singles final, Cayla Cross was a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 winner over 12-year-old Imani Phillips, a player almost half her age. Cross took a 4-0 lead in the first set before Phillips won the fifth game.

In the second set, Cross led 3-0 before Phillips offered some resistance in making it 3-1 and then taking Cross to deuce in the fifth game.